| dc.description.abstract | The objectives of this study were to analyse Barack Obama's journey of coming to terms with his white identity, his deliberate decision to embrace his African-American heritage, and, his search to know about and reconnect with his Kenyan ancestry as laid out in his two books, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Moreover, the study sought to investigate literary strategies that the author uses to foreground the theme of the search
for identity in the works.
This study was guided by the African-American Criticism Theory, the Theory of The Autobiography and the Theory of the Literary Essay. There were several conclusions from the study. First, Barack Obama didgo though a time in his life when he did not know what to make of his white identity. However as a result of reading Malcolm X's biography and reflecting on the unconditional love he received from his mother and grandparents, he accepted his white heritage as an inalienable part of him.
Second, he made clear and deliberate steps in order to embrace his African American heritage. Third, Obama's Kenyan identity is important because it is to Kenya that he traces his racial identity. Finally, there are several literary strategies that Obama uses to foreground his search for identity. These include use of the first person narrator, description, dreams, allusion and foreshadowing | en_US |
